The top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee said the Treasury Department “missed the mark” in new guidance that limits tax breaks for businesses that get their Paycheck Protection Program loans forgiven.
In a joint statement Thursday, Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley and Democrat Ron Wyden said the Treasury is depriving some small businesses of much-needed economic relief by forcing them to choose between getting their PPP loans forgiven or claiming write-offs on expenses they covered with the loan money. The IRS published guidance on the issue Wednesday.
“Regrettably, Treasury has now doubled down on its position in new guidance that increases the tax burden on small businesses by accelerating their tax liability, all at a time when many businesses continue to struggle and some are again beginning to close,” Grassley and Wyden said.
The congressional reaction to the guidance puts additional pressure on the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service to allow taxpayers to claim the expense deductions. Grassley and Wyden encouraged the IRS to reverse its position.
The lawmakers said they are working to include language in year-end legislation clarifying that taxpayers qualify for expense deductions even if their loans are forgiven. That could be included in government spending legislation that Congress must pass by Dec. 11 before federal funding runs out.
Chris Moran, a tax attorney for law firm Venable LLP, said, “the IRS guidance seems to be inconsistent with congressional intent” in the CARES Act, which created PPP loans for businesses struggling from the pandemic. The law stated that the forgiven loan won’t be taxed, but didn’t specify whether companies could still write off the expenses they covered with that money.
Lamine Zarrad is the founder and CEO of StellarFi, a credit builder that reports unlimited bill payments to the three major credit bureaus. Since 2008, Lamine has worked in various financial services roles, launching his career with Merrill Lynch and later transitioning to the public sector as a National Banker Examiner at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Prior to Stellar, Lamine founded FinTechs Tokken and Joust. The latter was acquired by ZenBusiness where Lamine led the product organization through two fund raises, minting the company as one of the few Austin Unicorns. At StellarFi, Lamine and his team are on a mission to disrupt the U.S. poverty cycle and provide credit access to 132 million Americans with low or no credit. Lamine has been awarded a Bachelors in Business Administration in International Business and Russian Studies from the University of Texas at Arlington and a Masters of Public Affairs degree with a focus on Policy Analysis/Public Finance from the University of Texas at Austin. Lamine was born in the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan and came to the United States as a refugee prior to serving in the Marine Corps. Lamine speaks four languages and resides in Austin, Texas with his family.
David Braun is founder and CEO of Capstone Strategic, an M&A strategic consulting firm that has successfully facilitated over $1 billion of client transactions in over 30 countries across more than 100 industries. He is the author of Successful Acquisitions: A Proven Plan for Strategic Growth. He is reachable at dbraun@capstonestrategic.com and on Twitter @CapstoneStrat.
Olivia Kelman is a partner at K&L Gates
Excluding the forgiven loan from tax “is essentially meaningless if the expenses funded by the loan are nondeductible,” Moran said.
Still, many taxpayers aren’t expecting to get permission to claim the deductions, from the IRS or Congress, in the short term.
“I think most of them are, at least for now, resigned” to not getting the write-offs, Joe Kristan, a partner at the accounting firm Eide Bailly LLP in Des Moines, Iowa. “They’d certainly like to be allowed by Congress to step in and allow their deductions, but they’re not counting on it.”